David Hilbert was one of the great mathematicians who expounded the centrality of their subject in human thought. In this collection of essays, Wilfried Sieg frames Hilbert's foundational work, from 1890 to 1939, in a comprehensive way and integrates it with modern proof theoretic investigations. Ten essays are devoted to the analysis of classical as well as modern proof theory; three papers on the mathematical roots of Hilbert's work precede the analytical core, and three final essays exploit an open philosophical horizon for reflection on the nature of mathematics in the 21st century.